Living the Swank Life one post at a time.

Reality Ramblings

I've stopped blogging about The Amazing Race every week, because it seems there are only so many times I can blog that Jen needs to SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY before I get bored of it, and I'm sure y'all were bored of it long before I was.

However, I had to interrupt the lack of programming to comment on an historical occasion. For the FIRST time in Amazing Race history (12 seasons, people), I am GUARANTEED to not hate the winning team. Prior to this season there has ALWAYS been a team I disliked in the finals, and frequently they have won. This season, the last of the evil teams was eliminated this last week, and now we're down to just people I like.

I cannot express how happy I am that Nate and Jen were eliminated this week, and how actively I disliked them. Not only were they fighting the ENTIRE race, but she suffered from such a sense of entitlement and privilege that she got UPSET when other people did better than her, and seemed to think people were out to spite her rather than, you know, running a race for a million dollars. She lost me mid-way through the race, when a team placed first two weeks in a row, and the second week they were just inches ahead of Nate and Jen. Jen was upset that the other team got first place a second time - she had never gotten first place, shouldn't she be given a chance? It made me VERY happy that they never placed first. I also like to think they got a bit of karmic justice in their final episode. Making their way to the final challenge of the leg they opted to take subway rather than cab, based on the advice of some locals who told them it would be faster due to traffic. When they got to the subway station they discovered they would have to take a bus at the other end. So they take the subway, get to the other end, question whether they should take a cab instead of a bus (the answer: most definitely yes, while a subway may be faster than a car a bus will not be), then erupt into a fight over the whole thing. While fighting at least one cab for hire drives past them (kudos to Sweetie for spotting it). I like to think if they caught that cab, rather than fighting and then getting a bus, they would have still been in the race. But they were eliminated. On Jen's Birthday. OH HAPPY DAY!

And I really do like the changes that were made in the race this season. Specifically, the "screw over the other teams" option of the race that got added in a few seasons ago used to just involve flipping over a timer and waiting. Now it's a U-Turn, and you have to go back and do the second detour. Often times you avoid one of the detours because it is evil, so this is a genius addition to the challenge. Secondly, they FINALLY figured out how to appropriately penalize teams who are saved on non-elimination legs. On the next leg they have to do a Speed Bump, a challenge made just for them. They look like pretty fun things, too, so like the one challenger said this week "If we get eliminated because of this, at least we got to do this incredible thing."

But really, with just one episode left and me liking everyone remaining I'm sort of over this season of the race. Because they've announced teams and started running promos for next season of Survivor. This time around they have one team of "fan favorites" who have competed before, and one team of fans of the game. Some of the "favorites" they brought back perplex me, in part because I cannot remember who they are. Some annoy me, because I know that people are going to want to hold onto Jonathan and Johnny Fairplay because if you face either of them in the finals you are GUARANTEED they won't get voted. But the thing that has me all ready to go is that they have assembled the perfect trifecta of Survivor Competitors:

Ozzy - Who can swim better than a fish

James - Who could lift his entire team with one hand tied behind his back

Yau Man - Who can figure out the physics of any challenge in a split second, and calculate how to win it despite his lack of strength or agility.

I want these guys to form an alliance they instant they land on the island, for they will be unbeatable. Have some crazy-ass challenge for the final three, to determine if brains, brawn, or swimming are the best skill to have on Survivor. And totally rule the day. Both James and Yau Man have experience with hidden immunity idols and messing with other players heads as well, so there's really all kinds of fun to be had there.